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Showing 71 - 80 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Chief economist: Of capital gains taxes, COVID-19 and climate change

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 23 APR 2021
It's bad news day on Wall Street overnight with all four its benchmark equity market indices flashing red. The S&P 500, the DJIA and the Nasdaq dropped by 0.9% each, while the Russell 2000 had a smaller decline of 0.3%. The financial literati were ...

Chief economist update: Bank of Canada walks the talk

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 22 APR 2021
Browse through recent monetary policy statements released by many central banks around the world and you'll notice a central theme - economic recovery starting this year powered by vaccinations, eased restrictions (in some countries), adaptation ...

Chief economist update: The pause that refreshes

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 21 APR 2021
The music has stopped, should we cease dancing? Two consecutive days of losses on Wall Street is a very long time in financial markets so much so that "pundits struggle to explain stocks stumble", according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR). ...

Chief economist update: Copper 10,000

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 20 APR 2021
Copper prices continue to rally and indications are it won't be long now until it recaptures the US$10,000 a tonne record it reached 10 years earlier. At the current price of US$9,415.00, copper's only 5.9% away and won't be long till it ...

Chief economist update: Bubble, bubble getting out of trouble

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 19 APR 2021
"Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away..." -Frank Sinatara It didn't happen overnight, but it's happening... now. The Trans-Tasman bubble is here! After more than a year - I recall watching Qantas' chief executive saying it's ...

Chief economist update: Australians all let us rejoice

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 16 APR 2021
Australia is back! Back on track after its economy was cruelly interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This space had been ranting about the virtuous cycle that had been circling around the nation since activity and business and consumer sentiment indicators ...

Chief economist update: RBNZ keeps policy steady on unsteady outlook

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 15 APR 2021
If in doubt, remain patient and do nothing. This is the gist of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) policy statement following the conclusion of its April 14 monetary policy meeting. The RBNZ kept the official cash rate unchanged at 0.25% and maintained ...

Chief economist update: Australia's confidence contagion

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 14 APR 2021
Australia may not be "at the front of the queue for a safe and effective vaccine" (as Morrison declared back in November 2020) but it's certainly leading much of the world in containing the virus and strengthening economic recovery. This was the ...

Chief economist update: ScoMo cannot miss new vaccination target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 13 APR 2021
Some move the goalposts when they can't hit the target, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison did one better and all but abandoned his government's vaccine roll-out target. Taking to Facebook, Morrison announced on April 10 that: "The government ...

Chief economist update: No fear

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 12 APR 2021
The coronavirus optimism that prevailed over the dying weeks of 2020 and into the first quarter of this year has been replaced by concerns over the resurgence in infections - in Europe, India, Japan, South Korea and lately, the US, among others - caused ...